


The Dust Brother

by Canadian_BuckBeaver



Category: Undertail - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Undertail (Undertale), Brother/Brother Incest, Cannibalism, Comic, Cooking, EXP and LOVE (Undertale), Fontcest, Fucked Up, Gross, Headcanon, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Minor Character Death, Monster Dust (Undertale), Pre-Relationship, References to Undertale Genocide Route, Sibling Incest, Sleepy Kisses, m/m - Freeform, pre-horrortale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2018-11-22 18:53:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11386293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadian_BuckBeaver/pseuds/Canadian_BuckBeaver
Summary: Sans has started to fall down, give into his depression.  The kid continues to reset and kill his friends and Papyrus, and his feelings towards Papyrus are becoming stronger.  Papyrus doesn't let him fall though.  He shows Sans that he can look after him.Based on a conversation with Silverryu25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I will be entering this into a contest for Tumblr so please leave a kudos or comment, or let me know if you see any mistakes!
> 
> Thank you so much
> 
> Update: I WON READER'S CHOICE AT THE CONTEST.... O_O

Hundreds of years ago, humans had fought a strange war.  A war of humankind versus monsters.  These monsters weren’t like those that you can find within the pages of a book or in a horror film.  For what caused this war, I cannot say, although resources and territory has long since assumed to be the cause.  There is very precious little information that can be found on this topic.  History books and scholars do not tell of this war, wishing for it to remain forgotten, buried away except in the ancient words of legends and fairy tales.  Somehow, at long last, humans had won the bloody and dusty war, and had driven the monsters down to the Underground, sealing them away with a powerful barrier with the remains of human magic.  They swore that the monsters shall stay sealed in the Underground for an eternity, or until seven human souls were used to break the magic barrier. 

 

            The years passed slowly for monsterkind, and very rarely did a human fall down the depths of Mount Ebott.  In the years that Asgore ruled, a total of six souls were hidden under his castle, waiting for the seventh soul to fall.  Eventually the seventh did fall, a child with a blood red soul of determination.  Their journey to the castle was one of celebration.  They would be the one to release the monsters.  Soon monsters would be above ground as they once were, free at last!  They would be able to see the sun, to smell the fresh air once again.  No monster was quite as happy as the skeleton monster named Papyrus.  This particular human child was a friend to both him and his brother, Sans.  They had promised to take him to the surface, to let himself see the sun, and Sans the true stars that shone in the night sky.  Sans kept an eye on the child, mostly as a promise to the gatekeeper of the ruins, but also out of his own curiously.  Their history books had depicted humans as cruel, blood-thirsty creatures, jealous of monsterkind’s natural ability to wield magic, and their hunger for more power, resources and land. 

 

            This child seemed to be different though.  Although sometimes scared of the monsters that they met, they never hurt them, not even in their self-defence.  They ever fought, never dusted, though more than a few monsters would have given them reason to.  It was because of this peacefulness that Sans was able to overlook a few… blips.  ‘Deficiencies in time’.

 

            Truthfully, at first he wasn’t sure what was happening.  He had thought to contribute it to perhaps the ketchup he had drank being stronger than usual. He would be walking along, minding his own business or planning some rather terrible puns for his brother’s ears, when suddenly the world would go dark, only for a moment or two, before coming back into the artificial light.  After this darkness, he would be a couple hours back from the ‘current time’, before the darkness had overtook him.  Perhaps he was back at his post, at his favourite spot in Grillby’s, in his bed, so on and so forth.  And it seemed like only he was aware of what was going on.  No one else noticed these changes, and if he brought it up, he was laughed at, mocked, or even told that ‘he must be getting old’.  This wasn’t the first time these time loops had occurred to him.  Years ago he could remember fighting a rather sinister yellow flower, one who was desperate on taking over and destroying the Underground.  Their fights would be long and vicious.  The flower was skilled in the arts of pain and suffering, Sans in the art of war and chaos.  After a while though, these fights eventually disappeared and he had forgotten about them.  Until now. 

 

            Of course, he didn’t fully understand it himself until after he saw the kid battling Undyne.  The human was pleading for mercy, trying to avoid violence while Undyne threw her magical spears at them.  As Sans watched in horror, the inevitable happened.  Three spears struck the human, one after another, blood dripping slowly from their wounds.  As Undyne cackled in triumph and prepared to take the human’s soul, Sans saw the red soul shatter in thousands of tiny pieces.  The last hope of monsterkind, gone.  That’s when once again he saw the darkness overtake everything, even Undyne fading from view.  All that could be seen was two glowing, white buttons.  His body shivered when he read what was written on the two buttons. ‘Continue’ was one, ‘Reset’ the other.  Sans saw the little heart hover over ‘Continue’, making it yellow…

 

            And then he was back at his Hotlands hot dog stand, like nothing had happened.  Somehow the kid was manipulating time, able to go back to before their death.  And he was the only one that could remember it. The more Sans thought of it the more his skull hurt, and the more he thought of a gaping skull with two perpendicular cracks in his eye sockets.  Sans rubbed at his sockets, groaning.  More questions than answers.  But the kid seemed to be using their power for good, as cliché as that sounds, so Sans let them be.

 

            Sans watched as they befriended monster after monster, as they died hundreds of times, but finally, finally they made it to the castle…

 

            And they managed to take everyone to the Surface.

 

            It was even better than what was described in any book in the Underground.  The sun was warm, the breeze fresh and cool, and already he could see the possibilities that awaited them.  Sans and Papyrus would move into a house and, while Sans worked, that way he could ensure that Papyrus went to school to do whatever he wanted to do.  Probably cooking or perhaps some Drama classes, but the world was their oyster.  Anything was possible.

 

            That first night, as they slept Sans let his worried skull relax into a real smile, his dreams full of the impossibly bright future.  But, in his dream that inky blackness surrounded him and he saw two glowing buttons once again.  This time the heart was hovering over ‘Reset’.  The button glowed yellow and there was a sound of rushing wind and static.

 

            When Sans awoke he was back on his bare and dirty mattress, back in his old room, even with Papyrus pounding on the door, telling him to wake up and report to his Sentry post.  Sans didn’t want to believe it, but knew what the kid had done.

 

            They had reset the timeline, back to before they fell to the Ruins. 

 

            Sans had no plausible reason for this.  Why would the kid do such a thing?  Did the human not consider them friends?  Did they want something else from them or the Underground?  Did they think they possibly missed something?  He decided to keep a closer eye on them, just to see if he could somehow prevent these ‘resets’ from ever occurring again.  Hadn’t monsterkind suffered enough?  Didn’t they finally deserve their happy ending?

 

            What he saw in the next resets made no freaking sense to him.

 

            He lived and observed reset after reset.  Every ending being completely different from the last.  They didn’t always make it to the surface again.  And, every so often, a different monster would go missing.  Sans knew of several timelines where Toriel was forced to take back the throne due to the mysterious disappearance of King Asgore, or endings where he and Papyrus acted as Mettaton’s body guards.  Heck, he even knew of timelines where Papyrus of all monsters took the throne as king.

 

            Sans had learned early on not to complain about the endings.  The human didn’t listen to his pleas.  And such endings were always better than the ones where he came across a red scarf, abandoned in a pile of dust.  His brother, the one who always wanted best for the human, dead.

 

            But things never stayed the same.  The human always reset.  Always resetting everything back to before they fell.  And no one, other than Sans, ever remembered anything.

           

            Hundreds or even thousands of resets later, Sans was tired.  So very, very tired.  Between the constant nightmares night after night, and the damn kid resetting, had finally taken their toll on him.  His posture had slipped, his sockets dimmed and were underlined by several bags of bones, his hands always hidden in his pockets, fumbling for his secret ketchup packets.  But even those didn’t help him anymore.

 

            Only his brother.  His sweet, innocent brother always knew how to cheer him up on his darkest of days.  Whether it was talking about the Royal Guards, his constant babbling about everything and anything, or cooking some of his ‘famous spaghetti’ just for him, Papyrus was the only one that could make him smile again.

 

            He wasn’t exactly sure when his feelings for Papyrus changed from brother to that of a lover.  It was more than a few dozen resets back was when he first noticed Papyrus’ tall, lean frame.  From there he had started to notice how Papyrus’ eyelights would sparkle in excitement, and how he took such good care of Sans.  Making sure he ate enough of his spaghetti, tucking him in when he fell asleep on the couch, and even making sure that they never ran out of ketchup, despite how much he claimed to hate Sans drinking it.

 

            As Sans realized his feelings for Papyrus, the more his self-loathing grew.  This was his younger brother for Asgore’s sake!  Just what the hell was he contemplating?

 

            Yet, he couldn’t help himself.  He would lay awake at night, listening to Papyrus snore the next room over as he stared up at the ceiling.  Imagining his dirty thoughts.  Pulling that red scarf from around his neck and sinking his teeth into his vertebrae as his hands would dance through those strong, curved ribs…

 

            He always was disgusted with himself when morning came.  He forced himself to stay away from Papyrus, ignoring his soul’s desperate longing pinging.  As a result, his body became weaker and slower, even his magic beginning to deplete.  Sans lost his appetite, even skipping Grillby’s, the greasy food which he once picked over his brother’s lovingly prepared meals.  He still ignored Muffet’s food out of principle.

 

            The days flowed easily into one another as Sans lost track of time.  The human hadn’t fallen yet and that seemed to be the only marker of time that he cared about.  It was still about a couple of months or so before the human was due to fall and Sans had spent the day actually awake at his post, making small talk with those who walked by.  His disgusting thoughts had begun to plague his sleep during the day so he took care to avoid them.  Surprisingly Undyne passed by his station, though she was slightly shocked that he wasn’t sleeping at the station.  She didn’t talk long, just wanted to check in with him and see if he had seen any humans or Doggo, who wasn’t at his post.  Sans had directed her to Grillby’s, where the mutt would undoubtedly be smoking his beloved dog treats.

 

            Shortly after she left his brother came by.

 

            “SANS! YOU’RE… AWAKE?” he asked, complete with some adorably mild confusion. 

 

            Sans smiled at up his beloved brother.  “of course bro.  Undyne came by already to make sure I wasn’t.  told me that Doggo was _doggone_.” He winked as Papyrus groaned and rubbed his brows, frustrated with the pun.

 

            “SANS… NOW IS NOT THE TIME AND PLACE FOR YOUR RIDICULOUS PUNS.” He said, looking down at his brother, as if he was debating something.  Without warning he bent and picked Sans up off his stool, and walking off with him in his arms.

 

            Sans yelped and instinctively grabbed onto Papyrus’ shoulder.  Very broad shoulders, he realized, the unconsciously adding it to his mental smut collection for later.  “Paps?” he squeaked out.  “Paps what are you doing?”

 

            “TAKING YOU HOME FOR LUNCH OF COURSE.” Papyrus said, tossing Sans over his shoulder and immediately heading for their house in Snowdin.  He was making great progress too, his long legs effortlessly crunching through the freshly fallen snow.

 

            “Paps you know I can walk, right?  I don’t need to be carried like a baby bones…” he squirmed, ashamed at how he was enjoying the closeness.

 

            “SANS, YOU LOOK LIKE YOU HAVEN’T SLEPT IN A WEEK.” Papyrus informed him, still walking.  Two weeks, Sans mentally corrected him. “YOU LOOK LIKE YOU CAN FALL ASLEEP AT ANY MINUTE.  FOR MY SAKE AND SANITY, LET ME AT LEAST CARRY YOU HOME.”

 

            Sans sighed and gave in.  It was sort of nice being carried around by Papyrus.  He could still remember him as a baby bones, when Sans would do the same to him…

 

            “WE’RE HOME SANS!” Papyrus’ voice echoed through the warm darkness.  Sans’ sockets immediately jolted open.  When had he fallen asleep?

 

            Papyrus placed him gently onto his chair before turning back into the kitchen to retrieve their lunch.  Sans looked down at the table and rubbed at his skull, a common question repeating inside of him ‘what would he do without his brother?’  Here Papyrus had made fresh food for them, and had even carried Sans home so he could catch a quick nap.

 

            “HERE YOU ARE SANS!” Papyrus’ voice was close to him, once again interrupting his thoughts.

 

            Sans jumped and looked down at the dish that Papyrus placed in front of him.  To his surprise it wasn’t spaghetti, or even dinosaur oatmeal.  “stew?” he asked.  “no noodles today, bro?”

 

            To his surprise, Papyrus looked a little awkward, if that was even possible for the tall skeleton.  “WELL… YOU HAVEN’T BEEN LOOKING VERY GOOD LATELY, SO I ASKED DR. ALPHYS WHAT WOULD HELP… SHE SUGGESTED A COUPLE BOOKS TO READ AND THEN A NICE, HEARTY STEW.  THAT WAY YOUR BONES GET ALL THE NUTRIENTS THEY NEED IN A SINGLE DISH.” He said.

 

            Well… if that wasn’t one of the kindest things that anyone had ever done to poor, lazybones Sans.  “heh.  thanks bro.  _bone appetite_.” Sans said, ignoring Papyrus’ half-hearted groan and stirring the thick broth, bringing up a spoonful to his mouth.  It, wasn’t too bad actually.  Had a little bit of an odd aftertaste but that could just be his years of dosing everything in ketchup, slowly killing his taste buds.  To his surprise, when he looked up, Papyrus hadn’t touched his own bowl.  He was staring at Sans, as if waiting for something.  “it’s good bro.  thanks.”  He said, taking another mouthful of the food.

 

            Papyrus smiled, his shoulders relaxing a smidge.  “GLAD TO HEAR IT BROTHER.” he said, finally taking a spoonful of his own dish.  Together they ate, talked and enjoyed their meal, much like they had before Sans had developed his silly infatuation.

 

* * * * *

 

            As the weeks passed, Sans began to notice small, odd things.  Monsters were slowly disappearing from Snowdin.  Doggo had never been found, then the Annoying Dog, Jerry, and many others had went missing.  It was as if they just disappeared without a trace, walked off the face of the Earth.

 

            By the time that Toriel disappeared, Sans had long since given up on trying to solve this mystery and Alphys hadn’t made any headway either with her cameras.  He assumed that the human child was behind this, perhaps having fallen earlier than they had before.  They had to know where the cameras were by now and how to avoid them.  Just a new game they had developed to toy with his mind.  Picking off the creatures of the Underground one by one. Perhaps hoping to drive him mad with his drives to protect Papyrus at all costs?  Or were they trying to raise their LV pass 20 in an attempt to beat him in the Judgement Hall?  Well, as long as they didn’t harm Papyrus, Sans didn’t really care.  Papyrus was the only one who ever mattered to Sans.  The other monsters were of no concern for him.

 

            Whatever their motives, he was ready for them, especially with his new-old, more powerful magic.  Sans had already saw incredible improvement in himself within the weeks of eating Papyrus’ cooking.  His energy levels rose, his stamina was higher than before the resets started, and even his magic had re-stabilized itself.  And somehow Papyrus’ cooking had even raised his LV from a measly one, to a more powerful three.  Sans didn’t even know that that was possible just through food.  What would he do without his younger brother?  He was truly incredible.

 

            It was a dark, bleary day in the Underground, not even their artificial sun could burn through the fog and clouds.  Sans was watching the trail leading to Snowdin from his sentry post as per normal, his ears pricked for the sound of approaching footsteps.  Not that it mattered.  There were fewer and fewer monsters that traveled along this trail.  Even Undyne hadn’t checked up on him yet.  Which wasn’t surprising, Sans supposed.  With more of her guards going missing, she and the other members had to pick up the extra work, to ensure that there was no gaps in their patrols.  It was ridiculous to Sans that she wouldn’t just ask Papyrus to join in order to stop overworking her exhausted crew.  But that was Undyne, work harder, not necessarily smarter.

 

            Sans didn’t really mind the odd quiet though.  All it mean that he had the time and opportunity to think.  He had to protect Papyrus from the child at all costs.  He couldn’t let Papyrus be picked off.  The human will not kill him ever again, Sans vowed to himself. 

 

            His phone dinged with a text message from Papyrus.  Perfect timing.  Lunch must be ready.  Without reading it Sans teleported directly to their little house, eager to spend time with his brother. 

 

            However, when he entered the house, lunch was definitely not ready.

 

            Sans’ sockets roamed over the familiar-looking armour that was laid out in the kitchen.  It was covered in terrible scratches and dents, looking like the monster who had worn it had crawled their way out of hell.  It was coated in dust.

 

            The wearer, Sans could feel in his soul, was dead.

 

            He could hear Papyrus whistling as he was chopping what sounded like vegetables in the kitchen while something boiling on the stove.  Swallowing hard he peeked in the kitchen.

 

            His beloved younger brother was surrounded by various ingredients.  Cream, milk, celery, potatoes and carrots, along with containers of various spices.  As Sans silently watched, Papyrus, with his back still towards looked into his pot and nodded with approval and whatever was inside.  Papyrus tossed in his vegetables and stirred them before adding thin flakes of white meat and a pinch of different spices.  That’s when Papyrus did something odd.  Reaching up into his chest cavity he pulled a sealed tube from inside.  Uncorking it, he poured the entire fine, grey contents inside the pot.

 

            Fine, grey powder…?

 

            Wait… was that monster dust?

 

            Sans’ sockets widened in shock.  No… this was Papyrus he was looking at.  His baby brother.  He could still see him cooing at him from the crib.  “Paps?” he asked, listening to himself as if from a million miles away, “what are you cooking?”

 

            The effect was instantaneous.  Papyrus yelped and spun around, careful not to knock the large, bubbling pot over.

 

            His own battle body was covered in dust.  Not his own.

 

            “SANS!  YOU’RE HOME EARLY!” he sputtered.  “I… I TOLD YOU THAT LUNCH WAS GOING TO BE A LITTLE LATE TODAY…”

 

            “sorry Papyrus.  I never opened your message.  I just… just assumed…”  Sans was staring at that damaged armour.  He had seen it somewhere!  But where?  “Papyrus?  please… tell me the truth… have… have you been feeding me monster dust, this entire time?”  There.  He said it.

 

            Papyrus gasped and sputtered before sighing.  When his sockets opened again, they were of a cool, collected monster.  One who had resigned himself to his fate.  “IT WAS IN ONE OF THE BOOKS THAT ALPHYS LENT ME.” he explained.  “I’M SURE THAT THAT PARTICULAR BOOK WAS A MISTAKE, THAT SHE NEVER MEANT FOR ME TO SEE IT.  BUT IT WAS HOW MONSTERS WERE ABLE TO BECOME STRONG, VERY QUICKLY…”

 

            Sans nodded encouragingly at him.  Keep him talking, let him explain himself.

 

            “IT EXPLAINED THE PROPERTIES OF MONSTER DUST.  HOW IT WOULD RAISE A MONSTER’S STATS, PARTICULARLY THOSE OF THEIR EXP AND STAMINA.  AND… AND YOU WEREN’T DOING WELL BROTHER.  YOU WERE FALLING DOWN IN FRONT OF ME.  I COULDN’T LET THAT HAPPEN.  NOT WHILE THERE WAS A CHANCE THAT I COULD SAVE YOU…” a dust covered glove suddenly reached out and grasped Sans’ skull, pulling him up to look Papyrus in the sockets.

 

            “I LOVE YOU SANS.  YOU’RE MY BROTHER.  I WOULD, AND HAVE DONE ANYTHING IN MY POWER TO SAVE YOU, TO STRENGTHEN YOU.” a gentle finger caressed his cheekbone, following the movement in the bone while the light in his eye sockets stared down at him intently.  “AFTER ALL, WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT YOU?”

 

            Sans slowly chuckled, leaning into the touch to fully enjoy it.  His own brother had done all this for him.  To protect him…

 

            He really was the coolest.

 

            Sans gasped as the finger tugged a little more insistently at his chin, raising his skull further.  With a soft clank, his and Papyrus’ teeth were softly pressed together, magic quivering between them.  His sockets widened.  How… how could this be possible?  After all this time, all this lusting, and Papyrus felt the same for him?  His own sockets slipped shut, enjoying the precious moment.

 

            They finally broke the kiss, standing in the kitchen, staring at one another.  The slight hiss of fluid striking the burner broke the moment, causing Papyrus to return to his cooking, turning down the heat before stirring the pot and adding a few, last minute ingredients.

 

            Sans pulled up a chair to watch him cook.  “so what’s for lunch today?” he finally asked, “it smells good.”

 

            Papyrus hummed in satisfaction as he grabbed two bowls from the cupboard.  “JUST ANOTHER RECIPE FROM THE RECIPE BOOK ALPHYS LENT ME.” he said.  “FISH CHOWDER.”

 


	2. Comic Prize!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I realized that I forgot to share the comic that Nagi did for me

[I love it nagisaheichou](http://canadian-buckbeaver.tumblr.com/post/163413567864/nagisaheichou-canadian-buckbeaver-i-dont)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Mind Over Dust](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12230397) by [EvergreenEmerald](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvergreenEmerald/pseuds/EvergreenEmerald)




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